Better Memories
by LavaLampLunar
Summary: One-shot, prompted story. Alister reminisces the past when he was much younger.


**A/N:** _This scene takes place right after the signal drops between Ratchet, Alister, and Clank through the Obsidian Eye. This is assuming that there was a gap between them talking with Clank and then leaving for Zanifar._

Defending the vullards from the brutes known as agorians, who had attacked for the 118th time to be precise, was a tiring task for the young lombax and the elder lombax. The vullards gratifyingly gave them nano-tech to help heal their scraps, cuts, and bruises; and the vullards helped greatly in pointing the lombaxes in the direction to find the Obsidian Eye. With access to it, they successfully contacted Clank and got a stabilized time portal to open up on Zanifar.

"Father? Clank, what's going on?" Ratchet asked Clank.

"_Signal integrity zero percent. Signal lost._" the Obsidian Eye's main computer system lost connection to Clank, his image faded out from the crystal fractures and the system reset itself.

"Wait! Clank!" Ratchet quickly looked down at the keys and worked quickly to restore the signal.

"_Connecting…_" the system said as it began to reboot the signal.

"Ratchet, there's no more time and we don't need anything else. We got a lead… A far shot of a lead, but nevertheless." Alister said, pulling on the younger one's shoulder.

"But, Clank! I just—"

"_Connection failed._"

And with that, Ratchet's heart dropped down to his gut. It was a devastating blow to the shin to be so close, yet still so very far away from his friend.

"The fulcrum star must be too cracked by this point." Alister said, he patted Ratchet's shoulder, "Let's get to our ships and head out," he turned away and ran over to the doorway. Soon realizing he didn't hear Ratchet following him. "Ratchet?"

When Alister turned around, he saw Ratchet had fallen to his knees and rested his arms and head over the keyboard. It was a pitiful sight. It also made Alister grow a bit impatient with the youngster, not too fond of wanting to sit around and wallow at this time. He marched back over and shook Ratchet's shoulder.

"We need to get moving, Ratchet. Now, get up, get in your ship, and let's go to Zanifar." Alister demanded, but did not get too stern with Ratchet.

Ratchet slowly lifted his head and looked up at Alister, looking at him like a sad, small child. His eyes were welling up, but they were also dreary and tired.

"General, I'm sorry." Ratchet started, he rubbed his eyes and sniffed, "I'm… Really tired right now. Could we just… Rest?"

_Rest! Just what kind of soldier would complain about needing sleep when they're on a mission?_Alister thought, becoming far more impatient now. "I think it would be best if we kept moving, Ratchet, we have so much to get done!"

Ratchet sighed, "Yeah, we do, I get that." he pinched the bridge between his eyes. "I've got a splitting head ache coming on. If I could sleep for like just _an hour,_ I'd be fine. That's all I'm asking here, General."

_An hour wasted for sure._ Alister grumbled as he thought, "Alright, we can sleep here for the night, but leave first thing in the morning."

"Thank you, General."

Alister held out his hand to help pull the young one back up. They began to walk out of the zoni temple and back to their ships. As they walked, Ratchet could not stop thinking about Clank. It felt so much different now without Clank being around. It has probably been a year or two since he last saw the little robot. Being without Clank made Ratchet feel a little homesick, missing the times they spent just working out of their garage and then the many adventures together. He even recalled when they landed on Fastoon for the first time.

Ratchet then became curious, and while it might not be the best idea to talk about the planet much more with Alister after knowing of what truly happened. It could be a conversation that lead more to Ratchet learning about Alister a little.

"Um, General? Do you… Have many memories of Fastoon?" Ratchet asked.

Alister took a moment to process the question, he then turned back to look at Ratchet, "_Memories?_"

"Uh, preferably _good_ ones." Ratchet gave a sheepish grin. This might have been a sore time to be bringing Fastoon up again.

"Oh, um… You interested in hearing more about your father?" Alister smiled, looking forward again. He began to search through his archives of thought in hopes of picking out any great gems from his and Kaden's childhood to share.

"No no, well… He could be involved, but I was thinking more about stories of _you!_" Ratchet specified.

Alister's train of thought completely halted and he was a bit dumbfound, "Me? What do you want to know about me, I've about told you what you need to know!"

"You told me why you aren't with the lombaxes, but I mean like how about any happy times or memories you had. Specifically about you, not so much about my dad." by this point, Ratchet felt he'd already been read his father's biography through Alister's eyes.

"I suppose I could recall of one…" Alister said, trailing off into deeper, comprehensive thought. He hummed and reflected back on his own life, looking for a story that would seem suitable for sharing.

"Maybe something you remember as a kid, or something about your parents, maybe if you had a crush on som—"

"I actually can recall a bit about my paren—" Alister had already began speaking, before catching on to Ratchet's third suggestion, "Wait,_what?_"

"No no! Go on, what about your parents?" Ratchet tried to push the thought out.

"Ahem, right. My parents were both part of the Praetorian Guard, that's how they met, really." Alister started, "After working together for a couple months, they found themselves madly in love. Eventually coming together and then having themselves a bundle of joy.

"I was born to them by in their second year married. Apparently they'd struggled to have a child, so when I came to be, you could imagine the sheer joy they had. My mother was even happier after I was born since she could go back to work again. My parents were dedicated workers and perfectly scheduled out days in which one would go to work and which one would stay home looking after their little rug romper."

"_Pfft!_" Ratchet snorted, "_Rug romper_, that's too brilliant."

"That's how my father put it!" Alister exclaimed, "The moment I could roll was the moment I was already crawling and trying to explore. There wasn't much to explore in our small, two bedroom, high rise apartment home. However, when you're so small that you come up to your parents' shins, that whole home was like a vast, unexplored planet.

"I got to be so much trouble, my parents had to block off any way for me to get under the couch or beds. Seeing how father fell asleep on the job one day and mother came home, nearly horrified to find that I had vanished. I was simply behind the couch, playing with dust snappers. It was safe to say that they found me before I got any dust up my nose.

"I recall now of when I was young, and my father was called out to serve in part of the Great War. Those were some… More quiet and dark days. I was very small, so I don't recall much of it at all. What I do happily remember is the outcome.

"One day, my mother was preparing the house and awaiting for my father to return. I was also very excited to see him. By this point, I'd been learning to stand on my own two feet. And the moment my father came through the door, I was up and _running_ towards him. I even beat my mom to him. Both of them were impressed by how quickly I was up and running."

"That's adorable." Ratchet said, then followed up by a yawn that he desperately tried suppressing, "_Ah!_ Sorry, _'hm_, I'm way more tired than I thought."

"Oh you're fine, we're here at the ships now." Alister said.

Ratchet groaned of relief and dragged his feet as he got to Aphelion. "Man, General, I'd love to see what you looked like as a baby, heh. You sound a little like me."

"Just imagine a small rolly, polly, floppy ear'd lombax cub with chubby cheeks and there you go." Alister chuckled.

"Aww, so-" a yawn cut him off, "-_cooht, ahh_, goodnight, General." Ratchet pulled himself into the ship and flopped into his seat, passing out the moment he did.

"Yeah, goodnight to you too, Ratchet." Alister said, more so to himself as he got into his own ship for the night.


End file.
